NORFOLK, Va. (WVEC) -- Your ride to work may not be perfect, but it may be getting better!
Across Hampton Roads, there are plenty of signs of progress as VDOT looks to better move people around and pave the way for the region to grow. It's part of a $6 billion effort to build better roads and bridges to connect and move people and drive businesses to the region.
The High Rise Bridge is an example of progress, as is the widening of Interstate 64 and the tunnels. The flyover is coming along, as are the plans for widening the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.
"Certainly congestion is a huge issue," said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine. "The amount of time, the impact on our quality of life is a huge factor as well as moving goods, through which impacts business."
Valentine told me her goal is to deliver projects on time and on budget and embrace innovation, all while remaining transparent.
"For me, success would be if Virginia would be named the best state to do business and the best state to raise a family," Valentine said. "And that the major reason for those two distinctions is our multi-modal transportation system."
Success for our region could depend on the future of the Hampton Roads Transportation Fund, a fund created by the General Assembly in 2014 that uses a slight bump in sales tax and gas tax to fund local transportation projects.
But as more brick-and-mortar stores fail and vehicles become more fuel-efficient, the fund is projected to come up well short of the money needed to fund the region's future transportation needs.
"We want to be as targeted and smart with the resources we have," said Valentine. "We want to deliver as many projects as we can, given the limited resources we have."
That is the challenge, and not just in getting around Hampton Roads. In the state's 6-year plan, Valentine said there is $9 billion worth of projects and just a billion dollars worth of funds.
Tolls are a small part of the bigger funding picture.
"Tolling is one of the mechanisms to improve performance. So it's just one of the ways we are trying to manage the increased demand to move people and goods with limited resources," Valentine explained.
Valentine is a former Delegate and member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, and she believes people understand the need to make investments in roads and bridges and that transportation decisions need to be tied to economic development and competitiveness.
And that, she said, will require an embrace of research and innovation to unleash the full power of our ports, rails, roads, and bridges.
"There is a lot of evolution taking place in the economy in general. I think we need to take a look at how our economy is evolving and look at how we are able to capture the right resources to fund transportation."
Valentine did give us a peak of what's possible on the innovation front: an office of innovation will open this month to consider apps for better navigating traffic, fiber in roadways to better help us get around and the use of drones to assist in clearing accidents more quickly.
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